ai4bharat/Pralekha huggingface dataset:
Ministry of Civil Aviation
Civil Aviation Minister urges States/UTS to rationalize VAT on ATF within the range of 1% to 4%
Rationalization of VAT to give impetus to air travel
To enable a multiplier effect with regard to air connectivity and economic development : Shri Scindia
In order to give impetus to air travel, Union Minister for Civil Aviation ,Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia has written letter to 22 States/ UTs urging them to rationalize VAT on ATF across all airports in States within the range of 1% to 4%. He has asked them to take forward common intention to boost air travel and connectivity in State with a view to accelerate its economic development.
The price of ATF is a major component of the operating cost of airlines with that, the tax on ATF contributes significantly to the ATF price. Addressing this issue would enable a force multiplier effect with regard to air connectivity in states.
Citing examples of progressive states such as Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Telangana , the Minister wrote that they have brought down the VAT to one percent and even below. As a result, they have seen a substantial jump in the number of aircraft movements in their states. For example, the Government of Kerala has brought down VAT on ATF from 25% to 1%. Subsequently, the number of aircraft movements at Thiruvananthapuram airport increased from 21,516 flights to 23,566 flights in a span of 6 months ie an increase of 2050 aircraft movements post reduction of VAT. Similarly, aircraft movements at Hyderabad saw a rise from 76,954 flights to 86,842 flights in a span of 6 months i.e. an increase of 9888 aircraft movements after the reduction of VAT on ATF from 16% to 1%. Many other states, such as Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab and Sikkim have followed suit.
The Minister brought to attention of the states that air connectivity directly promotes tourism growth, output growth and employment generation, in addition to various indirect benefits to the economy. In fact, the aviation sector has a high output multiplier of 3.25 and employment multiplier of 6.1.
Presently, there is a huge disparity between States, and even within States, in terms of VAT being levied on ATF. Given the challenges that have arisen due to COVID-19. Hence ,the Minister emphasised on the need to reduce the existing VAT/Sales Tax on ATF to 1%-4% at all airports with immediate effect. Besides, it is worth noting that the revenue collected by the State on account of VAT on ATF is an insignificant proportion of the overall State finances. In any case, this will be more than offset by the positive impact of the air connectivity to the State through the flow of economic activities.
The 22 states/UTs to which the Minister wrote include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, National Capital Territory of Delhi, Ladakh, Andaman Nicobar, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu.
RKJ/M
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Ministry of Education
Union Education Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' to address the Students of 1st Batch of ASEAN PhD Fellowship Programme
Union Education Minister, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' will be addressing the students from various ASEAN nations at the virtual Welcome Meet for the 1st Batch of ASEAN PhD Fellowship Programme on October 16, 2020 at 11 AM. These students have been selected for the prestigious ASEAN PhD Fellowship Programme  funded by the Government of India. MoS for Education Shri Sanjay Dhotre will be present on this occasion as the Guest of Honour. The Welcome Meet is scheduled on October 16, 2020 at 11 AM.
Ambassadors and Representatives from ASEAN Member States; Secretary, Higher Education, Shri Amit Khare; Secretary , MEA, Ms Riva Ganguly Das; ASEAN Coordinators from Respective IITs, Directors of the IITs and the selected students will also grace the occasion with their presence.
The ASEAN PhD Fellowship Programme was announced on 25th January 2018, the eve of India’s Republic Day, by Honourable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi in the presence of leaders of all the ten ASEAN member states.
Under the APFP, 1000 fellowships will be provided exclusively to ASEAN citizens. The APFP is also the largest capacity development programme undertaken by the Government of India for foreign beneficiaries.
President's Secretariat
President of India attends civic reception in Lakshadweep
Lakshadweep can emerge as a model of ecotourism for the whole world: President Murmu
The President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu attended the civic reception hosted in her honour this evening  at Kavaratti, Lakshadweep.
Addressing the gathering, the President said that Lakshadweep has huge potential for developing the seaweed industry. Cultivation of seaweed in Lakshadweep would drastically reduce the import bills of pharmaceutical companies and hotel industry which are banking on foreign products.
The President said that Lakshadweep Islands have high potential for tourism as these are blessed with scenic beauty of white sand beaches, coral and diversified marine ecosystem. She noted that the Administration is engaged in the development of high-end eco-tourism projects at Kadmat, Minicoy and Suheli as anchor projects under the aegis of NITI Aayog. She said that it is a matter of pride that India’s first water villas are going to be built in the blue lagoons of this Union Territory. She said these innovative initiatives in the field of tourism would boost the face of tourism in a big way. More importantly, it can emerge as a model of ecotourism for the whole world.
The President was happy to note that with a vision to develop the islands, the Lakshadweep Administration has been pushing for reforms to bring a total shift in the development trajectory of the islands during the last few years. She said that apart from giving a push to infrastructural development, right-sizing of government, and encouraging private sector participation, the Lakshadweep administration deserves special praise for setting up desalination plants in many islands to provide drinking water to people.
The President noted that Union Territory of Lakshadweep provides state-of-the-art facilities for school-children. Lakshadweep has a better teacher-pupil ratio than most other places in our country. She appreciated the Administration for its commitment and dedication to improve the school education system. She also noted that to empower students with vocational, employable and entrepreneurial skills, the Department of Education runs digital literacy courses in the schools of Lakshadweep. She expressed confidence that these efforts of the Department of Education would help children of this geographically insular region achieve their dreams.
The President said that in today’s era, it is crucial to have internet access for the overall development of any region. She was happy to note that a submarine optical fibre cable project in Lakshadweep would be completed within a couple of months.
The President said that since Lakshadweep is a geographically isolated place, the question of the supply of electricity may require extra consideration. Development of alternative sources of energy would safeguard the environment of these beautiful islands and also show the world a way for eco-friendly development.
Please click here to see the President's speech
Ministry of Jal Shakti
Flow of raw sewage into Ganga will be stopped by 2022-Shekhawat
Assocham promises to be an active partner to avert water crisis in India
Union Minister for Jal Shakti Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat today asserted that flow of raw sewage into the river Ganga will be completely stopped by 2022 and the government is working on a Mission Mode to achieve this target. Addressing a National Conference-cum-Exhibition & Awards- “Innovative Water Solutions” here, the Minister said that the States of Uttarakhand and Jharkhand have already achieved this feat and promised to make Ganga fit for holy rituals by this December. He said, everybody from common men to Corporates have to come on board to achieve this mission, as India can’t afford the duality of scarcity of safe drinking water on one hand and wastage of 25 odd litres of water in shower bath. Shri Shekhawat said that he is ready to sit with the Corporates to chalk out a viable strategy for industrial use of water and discharge of untreated industrial waste into the rivers. He also asked ASSOCHAM to find out what portion of CSR funds are being spent on water issues, which he pointed out that it is a meagre 3 percent.
Shri Shekhwat said that though India is having 18 percent of the world population and an equal percentage of livestock, but our share of water is less than 4 percent and that too is mostly contaminated. He said that everyone should introspect that why India’s rank is 122nd in the World in terms of contamination.
Laying stress that providing piped safe drinking water to every household by 2024 is a stupendous task like cleaning of rivers, the Minister said that these tasks should not be viewed as governmental schemes, rather entire society should come forward in a responsible manner to achieve these goals through “daily audit of actions”.
In his address, President ASSOCHAM, Shri B.K.Goenka said that Water has become a national priority and suggested that the Centre, States and Industry should all work together in a holistic manner to find a scalable, solvable and affordable solution to tide over the problem of water scarcity in India. He said that ASSOCHAM wants to play an important role in this noble mission and can act as a bridge between the Government and the Industry to find out workable solutions.
The Minister also released a EY-ASSOCHAM report titled “Think-Blue” Effective Water Management: Integrating Innovation & Technology.
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SNC
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Ministry of Home Affairs
NDRF Evacuated more than 11,000 People
The heavy rainfall created flood like situation and threw normal life out of gear in various parts of the Country. NDRF teams are relentlessly continuing rescue operations in the flood affected areas of Assam & Bihar NDRF rescuers are ferrying the people in Inflatable Rubber Boats  to safer places and distributing the essential supplies like food packets, drinking water in affected areas.
Assam: 18 teams of NDRF have been deployed in Assam in connection with the monsoon season. Today, NDRF team deployed in Distt. Morigaon, carried out rescue & relief operation and evacuated 594 stranded villagers to safer places. In addition, a team of doctors, medic and paramedic staff of NDRF organized a medical camp at Distt. Golaghat and provided medical assistance to 116 needy people.
Bihar: NDRF teams are engaged in rescue and relief work in flood prone areas of Distt. Araria, Darbhanga, Katihar, Madhubani, Motihari, Sitamarhi & Supaul and also assisting the local administration in distribution of relief materials in the flood ravaged areas. So far, NDRF teams have evacuated more than 4100 people in Bihar.
NDRF responders are doing their best to get in touch with each marooned person in the flood prone areas of the states. So far, NDRF teams have evacuated more than 11,000 people and provided medical assistance to the 230 people during this monsoon season.
Shri S N Pradhan, DG NDRF is personally monitoring the situation and providing directions to the NDRF officials who are leading the operations in the flood affected areas.
A 24X7, NDRF control room in Delhi is functioning round the clock to watch the ongoing operations and in touch with other agencies to further respond in case of emergencies.
PIB Headquarters
Special Passport Mela
In order to meet the public demand and to facilitate submission of applications for the frequent travellers due to extended time in getting appointments, Regional Passport Office, Chennai will be holding ‘Special Passport Mela’ on Saturday the 12th January 2019 at Post Office Passport Seva Kendra , Vellore.
Post Office Passport Seva Kendra, at Vellore will function on Saturday the 12th January 2019 like any 0ther normal working day and accept applications as per time slots allotted to the applicants. Approximately 40 applicants are expected to benefited from this Mela.
To participate in this Passport Mela, all applicants have to long on the official website ‘www.passportindua.gov.in’ register on-line, generate ‘ARN’ , and pay online fees and then take appointment. Applicants participating in the mela should bring the print-out of ARN with appointment details, to the POPSK along with requisite documents in originals, plus one set of self attested photocopies. Applications under Fresh and Re-issue categories only will be accepted.
The appointments will be released on 09th January  at 1430 hrs for the mela to take place on Saturday, 12th January 2019. One the day of mela, applications will be accepted only as per the time slot allotted to them. Applications for PCCS, Walk-ins including On-Hold and Refused Tokens will not be entertained during the Mela.
Ministry of Education
Ministry of HRD announces National Educational Alliance for Technology  Scheme for better learning outcomes in Higher Education
Ministry of Human Resource Development has announced a new PPP Scheme, National Educational Alliance for Technology  for using technology for better learning outcomes in Higher Education.
The objective is to use Artificial Intelligence to make learning more personalised and customised as per the requirements of the learner. This requires development of technologies in Adaptive Learning to address the diversity of learners. There are a number of start-up companies developing this and MHRD would like to recognise such efforts and bring them under a common platform so that learners can access it easily. Educating the youth is a National effort and MHRD proposes to create a National Alliance with such technology developing EdTech Companies through a PPP model.
MHRD would act as a facilitator to ensure that the solutions are freely available to a large number of economically backward students. MHRD would create and maintain a National NEAT platform that would provide one-stop access to these technological solutions. EdTech companies would be responsible for developing solutions and manage registration of learners through the NEAT portal. They would be free to charge fees as per their policy. As their contribution towards the National cause, they would have to offer free coupons to the extent of 25% of the total registrations for their solution through NEAT portal. MHRD would distribute the free coupons for learning to the most socially/economically backward students.
AICTE would be the implementing agency for NEAT programme. The scheme shall be administered under the guidance of an Apex Committee constituted by MHRD. Independent Expert Committees would be constituted for evaluating and selecting the EdTech solutions. MoUs will be signed with the shortlisted EdTech companies. Awareness programs would be taken up by MHRD to create awareness of the NEAT solutions to teachers and students.
MHRD proposes to launch and operationalise NEAT in early November 2019.
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
Films Division to have fortnightly public screenings of acclaimed documentary films
Docu Film Club "KSHITIJ" to be launched at Films Division tomorrow
Film-lovers now have an opportunity to watch acclaimed documentary films at public screenings, as well as interact with the director / curator of the films. This is thanks to KSHITIJ, a documentary film club being launched by Films Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, in association with Indian Documentary Producer’s Association . The public screenings will be organized on the 2nd and 4th Friday of every month during 5:00 pm - 6:30pm at Films Division Complex, followed by a short interaction of audience with the director / curator of the film.
The docu film club “KSHITIJ”, will be inaugurated by the Minister of State for Urban Development, Government of Maharashtra, Shri Yogesh Sagar in the presence of noted film-makers Arunaraje Patil and Mrinal Kulkarni tomorrow  at 5:00 p.m at Audi-I, New Museum Building, Films Division Complex, Mumbai.
The acclaimed documentary film “Secret Life of Frogs” by Ajay & Vijay Bedi will be screened as the inaugural film.
Films Division, established in 1948, has been relentlessly striving to maintain a record of the social, political and cultural imaginations and realities of the country on film. For more than the last seven decades, it has been actively working in encouraging and promoting a culture of film-making in India that respects individual vision and social commitment. It holds more than 8000 titles including priceless INRs , documentaries, short films and animation films.
The media are requested to spread the word about the film club, so that people can enjoy and participate in the film screening.
Ministry of Road Transport & Highways
Ministry of Road Transport & Highways disposes 17,009 Public Grievances, 50 PMO references and 2,366 Public Grievance Appeals from November 2022 to August 2023
Special Campaign 3.0 begins from 2 - 31 October 2023 for institutionalizing Swachhata  and minimizing pendency in the Ministry and its subordinate offices
The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways  has disposed as many as 17,009 Public Grievances, 50 PMO references and 2,366 Public Grievance Appeals, from November 2022 to August 2023. The Ministry has also disposed 573 MP references, 36 Parliamentary assurances and 21 IMC references , during the period.
In order to give impetus to the exercise, the Ministry will undertake the Special Campaign 3.0 from 2 - 31 October 2023 for institutionalizing Swachhata  and minimizing pendency in MoRTH and its subordinate offices viz NHAI, NHIDCL & IAHE. During this campaign, special attention will be given to field / outstation offices in addition to the Ministries / Departments and their attached / subordinate offices.
The Ministry has directed all the officers to make all-out efforts to dispose of the identified references / issues, both during the identification and the campaign phase - 2 - 31 October 2023. The NHAI, NHIDCL and IAHE have been asked to designate a senior officer as nodal officer, who will be responsible for implementation and coordination of the campaign.
The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances  would be the nodal Department for monitoring and implementation of the campaign. The Government organized Special Campaigns in 2021 and 2022 as well.
Ministry of Power
SJVN to contribute Rs. 5 Crores to PM CARES Fund
SJVN Limited, a Mini Ratna and Schedule –'A' CPSE under administrative control of Ministry of Power, Govt. of India, has decided to donate Rs. 5 crores to Prime Minister's Relief Fund for relief work in combating the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19, a highly contagious disease has gripped the whole world in its clutches. The outbreak of the disease has resulted in exponential growth of persons infected with virus on daily basis. In India, the pandemic is posing severe health and economic challenges with rise in number of cases.
Sh. NandLal Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director of SJVN informed that as a responsible Corporate citizen and understanding the seriousness of fight against the Covid-19, SJVN has decided to contribute an amount of Rupees 5,00,00,000/-  to the PM CARES Fund.
The Prime Minister of the country has set up a charitable trust under the name of ‘Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund’ . This fund will act as a dedicated national fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected.
Sh. Sharma further informed that, SJVN has always been in forefront in supporting the society and the government for tackling any issues which affect the country or its people. To fight the Covid-19 spread, SJVN has already committed an amount of around Rupees Three Crores by way of support for purchasing ventilators by the Hospitals; by distributing Personal protective equipment like face masks, gloves, etc.; setting up of quarantine units in its project hospitals; distribution of food and other essential items to the needy. SJVN employees have also contributed an amount of Rs. 32 Lakhs from their salaries to combat the Corona challenge.
Election Commission
Bye Election to the Council of States from Tamil Nadu
There is a casual vacancy in the Council of States from Tamil Nadu as per following details: -
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Name of Member
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Reason
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Date of vacancy
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Term Up to
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Thiru. A. Mohammedjan
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Death
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23.03.2021
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24.07.2025
2. The Commission has decided to hold bye-election to the Council of States from Tamil Nadu to fill up the above-mentioned vacancy in accordance with the following schedule: -
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S. No
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Events
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Dates
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Issue of Notifications
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24th August, 2021 
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Last date of making nominations
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31st August, 2021 
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Scrutiny of nominations
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01st September, 2021 
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Last date for withdrawal of candidatures
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03rd September, 2021 
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Date of Poll
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13th September, 2021, 
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Hours of Poll
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09:00 am to 04:00 pm
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Counting of Votes
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13th September, 2021,  at 05:00pm
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Date before which election shall be completed
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15th September, 2021 
3. Broad Guidelines to be followed during entire election process for all persons: -
I. Every person shall wear face mask during every election related activity
II. At the entry of hall/ room/ premises used for election purposes:
 Thermal Scanning of all persons shall be carried out:
 Sanitizer shall be made available at all locations
III. Social distancing shall be maintained as per the extant COVID-19 guidelines of the State Govt. and Ministry of Home Affairs.
- The Chief Secretary, Tamil Nadu is being directed to depute a senior officer from the State to ensure that the extant instructions regarding COVID-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the said bye election.
President's Secretariat
President of India to inaugurate 'UNMESHA' and 'UTKARSH' festivals in Bhopal tomorrow
The President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu will visit Bhopal  tomorrow  to inaugurate ‘Unmesha’ – International Literature Festival and ‘Utkarsh’ – Festival of Folk and Tribal Performing Arts, being organised by the Ministry of Culture in association with Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi respectively.